206 Mr. G. R. Waterhouse on names of Carabideous Insects. 



however that that name has never been given by that author 

 to any genus of insects, but was adopted by him by mistake 

 — he supposing that certain Carabidce of South America be- 

 longed to the genus Cnemacanthus, founded by Mr. G. Gray 

 upon an insect which proves to be a native of Austraha, which 

 insect had previously received the generic name Promecode- 

 rus by Dejean. But in the notice in the ' Re\aie/ before men- 

 tioned, M. Guerin seems to think I may be excused, " ne sa- 

 chant pas que le Cnemacanthus figure par M. Gray etait un 

 vrai Promecoderus'^P Now I will venture to assert that the 

 author of those remarks learnt those very facts from my paper, 

 for they were there pointed out for the first time ; and in the 

 ' Magazine de Zoologie ' he describes several species of Odon- 

 toscelis as members of Mr. Gray's genus Cnemacanthus. To 

 make the matter more clear, 1 may mention that, according to 

 the views of Dejean and Brulle, the genus Cnemacanthus or 

 Promecoderus (these being synonymous) belongs to the fa- 

 mily Harpalidce, having the intermediate as well as the ante- 

 rior tarsi dilated, and the genus OdontOsceUs belongs to the 

 family Feronidce. 



We will call the first of these genera A, and the second B. 

 In 1829, Dejean names the genus A, Promecoderus, and in 

 1832 Gray names the same genus Cnemacanthus. In 1835 

 Brulle uses the name Cnemacanthus (quoting Gray as his au- 

 thority for that name) for the genus B; and in 1838 Guerin 

 follows Brulle in using the name Cnemacanthus (also quoting 

 Gray as his authority for the name) for genus B, neither of 

 these entomologists being aware that the insects they described 

 belonged to a different section to that described by Gray under 

 the name Cnemacanthus, though they might have suspected 

 as much from the difference of habitat given. 



In 1838 (published in 1839) genus B receives a name for 

 the first time, viz. Odontoscelisf. 



* To show how ignorant I was of this fact, I will quote two passages from 

 mypaper — "C/iemacant/ius of Gray (which is the Promecoderus of Dejean)." 

 Again, " Ciieinacanthus gibbosus of Gray appears to me to he the Promeco- 

 derus hrunnipes of Dejean, which is from Van Diemen's Land, and perhaps 

 from some other parts of Australia, and not from Africa, as lias heen stated. 

 The genus Cnemacantlius of Guerin and Brulle, being synonymous with Mr. 

 Cnrtis's genus Odontoscells, the species of which are from Soulh America, 

 must not be confounded with Cnemacanthus of Gra}'." 



f I was not aware, when my first jiaper was written, that the name Odon- 

 ioscelis had been previously used for a genus of Hcmipterous insects (not 

 that this in any way affects the question at issue) ; this fact I however soon 

 afterwards liad jjointed out to me by ]\Ir. White, and in my next paper 

 I called Mr. Curtis's attention to it, and begged of him to propose some 

 other name in its stead. To this request Mr. Curtis paid no attention ; I 

 shall therefore propose that the name Scaritidea be used to designate the 



